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Movies & TV

06th Mar 2022

Ukrainian comedy series starring President Zelensky airing on Irish screens

Hugh Carr

zelensky comedy channel 4

The series served as an inspiration for Zelensky’s election campaign in 2019.

Servant of the People, the Ukrainian comedy series which provided Volodymyr Zelensky with a platform to run for president in 2019, is set to air on Irish screens tonight.

Three episodes will be shown on Channel 4 at 10.35pm on Sunday night (6 March), with the first two seasons then heading to the streaming platform All4 at a later date.

The series follows Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko, a history teacher who goes viral following a rant about government corruption in Ukraine which is secretly recorded by a student.

Holoborodko ends up with a sizable political following up, and is elected President of Ukraine at the next election.

The popularity of the series led to a real political party being founded with the same name as the series, and Zelensky was soon elected as President.

Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the demand for the series has skyrocketed, with several countries confirming they would be airing the show.

Servant of the People is being shown the same night as a new Channel 4 documentary, Zelensky: The Man Who Took on Putin.

The documentary is set to air at 6.45pm.

“We know from the huge audiences coming to our comprehensive news coverage of the war in Ukraine that our viewers have a real thirst to understand the conflict and the individuals who are shaping it,” said Ian Katz, Channel 4 Chief Content Officer.

“In the space of a few weeks Volodymyr Zelenskyy has become one of the most admired and speculated about men in the world and broadcasting our current affairs special.

“Zelensky: The Man Who Took on Putin and Servant of the People across Sunday night will give viewers access to deep insight into how he shot to political prominence, the foundations of his popular appeal and his intuitive grasp of how to exploit both traditional and social media.

“The battle in Ukraine is as much an information war as a military one and these two programmes will show that Zelensky was a formidable information warrior long before he was a war leader,” he concluded.

Zelensky’s other past acting credits include Paddington Bear.

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